Australia’s unemployment rate fell back to 3.5 per cent in February, official figures released today, clouding the Reserve Bank’s next move on interest rates.
Markets now expect the bank to hold the official cash rate at 3.6 per cent when it next meets in April.
Across the states and territories, the biggest change was in the ACT where the jobless rate fell by 0.5 percentage points to 2.9 per cent.It was steady in NSW at 3.2 per cent, it fell by 0.3 percentage points in Victoria to 3.7 per cent, it was steady at 3.8 per cent in Queensland while it lifted by 0.2 percentage points in WA to 3.9 per cent.The bureau’s head of labour statistics, Bjorn Jarvis, said the jobless rate was back to where it was in December.
“This was particularly evident in the south-east of Australia, with larger than seasonal numbers of people entering into employment across NSW, Victoria and the ACT.” “The labour market continues to track in a very strong position, and is starting to generate faster wage growth,” he said.
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